Orange Spice
by Shalcro
Summary: A short oneshot for day 1 of DGM Week 2015. The only thing I'm doing for DGM Week actually. Laven. Rated T. Coffee Shop AU.


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Day 1: Natural Selection | "Survival of The Fittest" | Evolution

Keywords: Battles. Wins. Losses. Strengths. Weaknesses. Dis/advantages.

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There was something about him. Something that made his ears ring with passionate cries of want. Something that that made his heart trot in a frenzy of spirit. Something that made him want to sit down across from him and strike up a conversation. Something that left him feeling empty when he left that seat and out of the building. Something that made him want to grab his wrist before he left. Something that made him want to ask for number. Something that made him want to stop him, and just stand next to him for however long he needed to. He didn't know what it was, but he knew when it started.

It was someday he couldn't remember, all he could remember from that day was that it was cold, very cold, below zero cold. He had shivered his way into the comforting warmth of the coffee shop, shuffling his way into the back of the shop to slip on his uniform and clock in for his shift. Getting a fellow greeting from one of his co-workers who was on their break at the moment he slipped his backpack into his assigned locker in the back, shoving on his uniform and soon making his way onto the till, ready to start up his shift, and it began.

The first hour of his shift ticked away rather quickly, and he could remember, surprisingly, at exactly 5:46pm, was when _he_ stepped into the tiny coffee shop. _He_ was tall, at least 6'0 tall. A pumpkin orange scarf was tied tightly around his neck, along with a black leather jacket underneath. His flaming red hair was held up in a headband, and he oddly had an eye-patch over one of his eyes, strange, was what he thought. Black skinny jeans fit nicely around his waist and a laptop bag was hovering over his shoulders. He was looking down at something, presumably a phone, and a pair of bright red wireless headphones hanging around his neck.

He watched as he stepped his way towards the front counter, he not really paying attention to what was around him, being too focused as to whatever was on his phone's screen, this caused him to stumble over a few things on his way to the front counter, his limited vision probably helping with his stumbling. He was glad about that though, because as this stranger got closer and closer to the front counter, his cheeks suffered a hot spell, and he could nothing but stare as this strange man neared the counter, caught under a familiar spell of attraction.

Once the stranger got closer, his eyes were still locked on him, and as this stranger got the closest he could from behind the counter. The other man blushed harder, so caught up in his little staring contest with the other man that didn't seem to notice that he forgot that he was a customer, and that he had to greet him. The stranger didn't seem to notice though, for he was still too focused on what the other could now confirm was a phone.

"Oh! Hi there sir! What can I get for you today?" The man looked up from his phone for if only just a second, and his forest green eye caught a silver one, and for a moment, for a single moment, his heart skipped a beat.

"I'll just have a grande orange spic tea please." The customer spoke sternly, as if he was in a rush, or in a bad mood, but he didn't care, he was still too caught up in his beauty to notice. His silver eyes peaked at him from the corners as he wrote down his order, a grande orange spice, that's all he had ordered, and he passed the cup on to his always grumpy co-worker to fill out. He was sure to write down, 'Make with care' onto the cup before he passed it on.

"That'll be $4.6-!"

"Keep the change." Was all this other male said as he placed a five onto the counter before walking off, still focused on his phone as he sat down at an empty two person table nearby the front counter. The other was left with no words, and he followed this other mans orders and kept the five, sliding it into the register with care.

For the hour that this other man was in the cafe, the silver eyed male stared at him from the corner of his eyes when he was bemused with something else, and giving him a full on stare when he had nothing else to do. The whole time the stranger sat on a laptop, seeming to be scrolling mindlessly through some kind of webpage, but the silver eyed male was always just a little too far away, or looking at the wrong angle to see what he was doing, but he really didn't need to know that badly now did he? He'd laugh ever so often, and when the other first heard that little giggle escape his lips, he felt his heart fail once again, and he almost overfilled a cup he was holding with hot water, only to be stopped when his grumpy co-worker told him to watch out with a scowl. He was glad that he at least didn't burn his hand, but he did have to restart the drink. He cursed the red-head for it.

He soon left though, much like all of their other customers, after about an hour, and he had made one last order for a grande orange spice on his way out. Then, the stranger was gone, and if just for a moment, the silver eyed boy had a sudden urge to write his number on his cup, or to jump over the counter and stop him at the door and ask for his, but he didn't, he'd just met this man after all, and he had too keep his composer as he left. He decided to clean his glasses with a little too much force instead of watching him leave though, as not to taunt himself as he left, but that little ring from the doors bell was probably more taunting then watching him leave.

When the silver eyed male had stuffed his glasses back on, and he could see clearly again, he scanned the café again, and the other was gone, no where to be seen, and left the other feeling somewhat… empty. He wondered if the stranger would be one of those beauties that'd step into their café once and would never been seen again, or if he'd come back again sometime soon. The silver eyed male hoped it was the latter, and thankfully, it was, for not even a little more then a week after, he was back to the little café.

It was another cool day, late November he believed, and the silver eyed male was working the same timed shift as he had the day he had come in before, and at around the same time as the last, he had come in once again, and the silver eyed male couldn't be happier when he saw his blurry form from behind the glass door of the café, he noticing that bright orange scarf tied around his neck first, it was orange, like the tea he had ordered when he first came here, orange spice.

It was a little different this time though, his general appearance hadn't changed, and he was wearing rather similar clothes from the last time he had come in, he worn seemingly the same black skinny jeans, a long black trench coat this time, and his hair was down, but the biggest difference this time was that instead of a rather off putting frown on his face, the beautiful stranger came in with a bright smile tapped onto his face, and the silver eyed male almost melted at the sight of it, and he wasn't looking down at a phone anymore, but his wireless headphone where still dressed around his neck.

Another difference from last time was that the silver eyed male was with a different co-worker from the first night he had met him, and she, had also noticed him when he had entered the building. The stranger stopped for a few seconds to pull out his phone from a jean pocket to presumably check something like a text. The silver eyed male's female co-worker shuffled up beside him, and smirked.

"He's a looker isn't he Allen?" She whispered, gesturing over to the male by the door. Allen glared at her through his wide rimmed glasses.

"Shut it Lenalee, I saw him first." Allen's flamboyant voice rang through. Lenalee giggled.

"Oh really? When?" Allen glared back as the stranger pushed his phone into his pocket and started to shuffle towards the counter again.

"Last week, you weren't here! Now hush! He's coming over here!" Allen spoke through gritted teeth as he stepped up to the till, ready to greet him on time this week.

"Alright then, fair game." Lenalee shot back before going back to her station behind the bar, leaving Allen alone at the till, the red-haired stranger from before stepped up to the till with a smile. Allen flushed.

"Hello there sir! What can I get for you today?" Allen's simple and tiresome greeting followed out of his mouth with ease, even with this handsome man in front of him, and this time, Allen was able to get a good look at the other without him looking down to his phone constantly. From what Allen could tell from behind those long red bangs, he had a very long handsome face, and his eye-patch was made of thin black leather. His nose was short, but it fit his face, and he had a single, beautiful, dark green eye peaking at him. He had a very beautiful face he could tell you that.

"I'll have a grande orange spice please." His answered, his voice devoid of any negative emotions, leaning Allen to almost faint at the sound of it.

"Just like last week?" That sentence was meant to stay in Allen's mind. He could hear a giggle come from Lenalee at the bar. Allen wanted to punch himself in the face as the other's single eye widened.

"You remember me?" He asked, his voice edging on a laugh. Allen's cheeks flushed, and he hoped the other couldn't see them go a rosy pink.

"Y-Yeah… I have a good memory." Allen stuttered back, hoping he'd pick up on the lie. He didn't have the best memory, but he sure as hell did remember this guy, he was really pretty after all. The silver eyed boy died a little inside at the fact that he remembered him too. The red-head smiled, a small chuckled escaping his lips. His lips seemed perfect by the way.

"Then you should remember that you can keep the change." He did one of those sexy tongue clicks that jerks usually do to girls, and he did an odd one eyed wink as he placed a blue five on the counter, but regardless of the douchieness, Allen's cheeks still flushed up as he passed the cup with his order onto Lenalee, who seemed to be watching the exchange he was having with the other very closely.

"I… uhhh… yeah… I remember that." Allen mumbled, cursing his stupid feminine voice for a moment. He was pretty sure the other could tell that he was gay just from that little fact alone. The other laughed, not before wink/blinking once again.

"Hah, you're cute." Allen froze, and the red-haired male walked off. Lenalee snickered from inside the bar, and Allen could see the other smirking as he stepped off to the same empty table he had sat at before. Allen stood there stuttering like a giant dork for a least a full minute until he had to stumble his way into the back room to compose himself. He had called him cute! Oh no, why was he getting this way?! Allen couldn't take it. He spent at least fifteen minutes trying to compose himself again.

That next hour that the red-head was there for was hell for little Allen, because every so often, the red-haired male would sneak a look at Allen behind the counter when he least was expecting it, and every so often they'd enter a very awkward one eyed eye contact, they always end with Allen breaking the contact quickly, always going on to doing something like cleaning his glasses, or pretending to scrub the bar to avoid the awkward contact.

Though there was one thing to be proud off during this night, and that was finding out what this red-haired stranger was doing on his computer, and the website his computer was stuck on, was no other then the never ending vortex of Tumblr. Oh that sly bastard, he'd have to ask for his URL at some point.

The stares continued and soon the silly antics of the night made Allen so flustered that he ended up taking his break just about when Allen thought the red-head would be ready to leave, but nope, the universe decided to hate him, and just as he got off of his break, the red-head was waiting at the till with this sly grin plastered on his face, obviously waiting for the other to come back. Allen cursed his flushing cheeks as he stepped up to the till.

"What can I get you?" Allen asked, obvious frustration showing through his voice as he avoid eye-contact like he had many times during that night. The red-head slid a five onto the table.

"You, by now, should know that." He smirked. Allen huffed.

"One grande orange spice coming right up." Allen grumbled as he wrote his overly known order onto a cup, passing it off to a smirking Lenalee running the bar. Lenalee made his tea with nimble fingers and passed it off to the other as he left. Allen getting rather jealous as he talked to her a little bit as she was making her drink just as Allen was slipping the five that he gave him into the register, but he notice something strange about that five, and was that there was a slip of paper hidden underneath it.

_ .com _

_Follow me._

God damn it.

Allen growled as he crumpled the paper in his hands, really wondering why he was so angry all the sudden, but at that moment he heard the little door bell ring, and Allen looked up from the ground on instinct at the sound, wondering if it was another customer coming in, but the red-head was staring straight back at him, holding the door open, just about to leave.

"Thanks Allen." Allen froze once again, wait, how'd he know his name, Allen looked down to his chest, oh yeah, his name tag, and when he looked up, the red-head had left out the door. Allen cursed out loud.

…

Allen did end up looking up this teasing red-head's URL when he got home thought, finding his blog to be one of that of a personal one, filled with a mixture of interesting and amusing facts, all from him surprisingly, as well as a mix of a few fandoms and other things. Allen had followed him though, his little food blog that he ran called 'MunchingMunchingDango' following 'BookmansSecerts' rather easily, Allen hoping that this red-head wouldn't care if he stalked him a little bit or not.

From his page, Allen concluded that he was twenty-one, and was working on becoming a historian. He also concluded that his name was Lavi Bookman Jr., which was a somewhat odd name, but it explained part of his URL at least. Allen liked the sound of that name, Lavi, it was a little strange, but it was interesting.

For a few moments Allen wondered if he should send him an ask telling him that it was that cute barista that he met today at a coffee shop, but Allen decided against it, and just decided to stalk his blog for a little bit. He was interested by all of these facts that Lavi knew, and he also noticed that there was a little side pages called 'Selfies' that he was rather interested in looking at. He ended up spending a little but too much time looking at his selfies page though because he ended up falling asleep late that night looking through his never ending selfies page, and when he woke up the next morning, he came face first to a picture of his face on his computer screen, making his flustered to think it was actually him, though it actually wasn't. His head drooped off the side of the couch a bit and a bit of drool was threatening to dribble into his nose, and when he checked the time, he was almost late for his afternoon piano classes. Allen was very flustered to say the least when he woke up that morning.

The next time when Allen came into work at around 6:00pm again was a few days later, and like the two times before, the red-head came in, at just around the same time. He ordered the same thing he had the past two times that Allen had seen him, and this time, Allen got another slip of paper under the five that Lavi had slid onto the counter, it saying 'Thanks for the follow' on it with a little doodle of a cute rabbit on it, and Allen had cursed out again.

This process repeated, for a very long time, it repeated. Lavi'd come in everyday, at the same time, he'd order the same drink when he arrived, and when he left, and he'd always say 'Thanks Allen' before he left if he was there, and this repeated, over and over again, everyday that he'd come in. Allen even started signing himself up for shifts when he knew Lavi would come in more often just to see the red-head, but he'd never to talk to him, he was always too shy, the only conversations only ever when he'd order his drinks, or when he'd leave. He never once messaged him on Tumblr either, but he had tried a few times, but the only things he had be able to send were cute anon love messages, which he seemed to get everyday from other people. He was rather popular it seemed.

Allen had come to terms with it already, he was crushing really hard on this man that came to his little café shop everyday. Why was he crushing? He didn't know. Was it lust? Simple attraction? Love? He didn't know. He knew the deep philosophical meaning to it sure. It was natural selection after all, a selection for a possible mate that could produce the best offspring, though Allen couldn't really produce any offspring with this man because… well… they were both men, but you get the point. It was something that humans had evolved to do over many, many years of evolution. But other then that Allen didn't really know why he liked this man so much. All he knew was that he just did.

Regardless, the days ticked on, then the weeks followed, and soon the months followed, and after three months of knowing this man, Allen had yet to talk to him once, neither through Tumblr or when he came into the café. Lenalee had pushed him many times, telling him to take his break so he could go talk to him when he was in, or to maybe slip him his number on his cup sometime, Lenalee obviously seeing from the start how much he liked this man from afar, and also that this other man had noticed from the start as well. Allen was just too shy to ask him out, or even talk to him for that matter, but after much, much pushing, and even a little shove from his always grumpy and never very helpful co-worker Kanda, Allen finally decided to do it. The pressure had finally gotten to him, and he decided it, he was going to ask him out. To hell with talking to him first, Allen could tell that Lavi already knew that Allen was crushing on him pretty hard, so why couldn't he just skip to dating? He didn't look like the kind of person to say no after all. Almost all of his other co-workers were betting on if he was really going to do it or not, thought the only person who was going to be there to watch it happen was Lenalee, but he couldn't let them bet on him now could they? Plus, he was doing this for his own happiness right? So what could go wrong? Well, Lavi could always say no, but Allen didn't want to think about that.

So, the planned night came, and Allen was overly nervous, much more nervous from any other time that the red-head had come in. Lavi came in like normal though, and at that moment, on that slow and quiet late winter night, all eyes were on him. Allen had the whole hour while the red-head was here to ask him out, and the moment he stepped in to the coffee shop and ordered his usual with a smirk, the clock was beginning to tick down. There was just one the problem though, Allen didn't have a plan. Yeah… talk about dumb move Allen, you couldn't have at least prepared a few lines or something? This lead him to working his usual till, or actually sitting and staring at the red-head since the place was o dead for the full hour wondering what he could do. The hour passed quickly for Lenalee and the hour was painfully slow for Allen, and from about a half hour through, Lenalee, who had been looking forward to a cute show, was beginning to lose hope that Allen would actually ask him out. She was thinking of maybe giving Allen one last shove to go on, but little did Lenalee know that during this slow hour, Allen was just waiting for a moment when he could be alone in the café with Lavi to ask him out, it was a rather private matter after all. So, when Lenalee had left for her break, and Lavi was just about to leave out the door for the night, Allen did the bold, and just the counter, running up to the red-head before he had gotten to the front door and grabbed his wrist forcefully.

Allen stared up at Lavi for a moment, and Lavi stared back down at him, a smile tugging onto his face as Allen flushed at the contact he had made with the other.

"L-Lavi." Allen mumbled out, using the red-head first name for once. Lavi looked at the other in interest.

"Yes Allen?" He asked. Allen's cheeks flushed at the use of his name as well, even though he used it everyday before he left, but he used it in a different sentence this time. Allen cursed that his name was always shown from the little nametag on his apron. Allen looked down at the floor in embarrassment, glad that he had checked before that there was no one else in the store, even though it had been pretty much dead for that night. Allen took a deep breath in, preparing himself for what he was going to say. He still looked to the ground.

"Do you… do you…" Allen stuttered, he took another shaky breath in, and he just blurted out his question as quickly as he could, "Do you want to go on a date with me?!" Allen squeaked out as quickly as possible. Lavi stood there in silence for a moment, and Allen wondered for a moment that he was reject him, but Lavi soon laughed.

"It took you long enough," Lavi giggled. The red-head grabbed Allen's chin and pulled him up to look at him, "Go get changed, I'll take you somewhere." Lavi then leaned forward and left a light, teasing, peck on Allen's lips. Allen swore he felt his heart beat out of his chest, and he froze, but soon, he gave probably one of the most childish and happiest smiles he had ever done, and he quickly let of the other wrist, rushing his way to back behind the counter.

"Lena! You're closing tonight!" Was what he called back as he rushed into the backroom to clock out early for the night.

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AN: Hey there, here's an oneshot. Yay. Okay, I should probably say this before anything happens but, this is going to be the only thing I will do for DGM Week, sorry in advance I just. I honestly started this very late and I didn't have many ideas for it to begin with. This oneshot is actually really good and I really like it, I did do one for day two, but it was really shitty. I hope you guys can forgive this though. Just enjoy the oneshot while it's here, KTHXBYE

Best Wishes,

Shalcro~

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